Enterprise Plus is available now to Box customers. The suite also includes the ability to send documents for signature directly from Salesforce. This is a new plan that includes the following add-ons: Box Shield, Box Governance, Box Relay, Box Platform, and Box Sign. Box also launches Enterprise Plus suite of toolsīox also introduced its Enterprise Plus suite. Customers who require this today can work with a number of partners, such as DocuSign.
In parallel, Box is working to integrate with a third-party trust provider to bring full digital-signature capabilities. This includes the ability to use SMS and/or passwords.
I asked Box about the service, and a spokesman explained that the company is starting with e-signatures but working on digital-signature verification capabilities for release later this year. That information is stored in the document and will show if anyone tampers with the document after it has been signed. When a document goes through the signing process, the signature is authenticated to validate the person's identity. A digital signature is an e-signature with enhanced security. Those new to this area should understand there is a difference between e-signatures and digital signatures. Difference between e-signatures and digital signatures This might include something such as ensuring only certain key people can access the document once it is signed. Once the contract is signed, it stays in Box, and any kind of governance policies can be applied to it. Instead of having to log into a separate tool, the e-signature process is done in Box natively, which means there's nothing to upload. This is made easy with the core Box platform when compared with something like email, because everyone is working with the same document. For example, consider a contract being created where the sales team and legal team would need to collaborate and send versions back and forth, make comments, assign tasks, and so on. This is where Box's approach is different, because it thinks about the lifecycle of the e-signature, which includes the actual signature but also the upstream and downstream processes.
Typically, each e-signature service has its own file storage, and the user would need to remember to download the document from that service and then upload it into the corporate content management system. Then there is the process of protecting, archiving, and storing executed agreements. If the customer then asks for a change, the Word file is updated and re-uploaded, creating another copy-if the original isn't deleted. Also, there can be issues with version control when creating the document.įor example, a salesperson may create a document in Word and then upload it into a standalone service to send to the customer.
Some charge by the document, others by the user, some have capacity limits, etc. The first one is simply the additional cost of paying for a service. While there are many standalone signature services, the use of them can cause some business challenges, particularly in large volumes. Now that people have grown accustomed to the ease of e-signatures as businesses trust the process, the increased use of them is likely to stay and even grow. This includes real estate transactions, sales contracts, and even some legal documents, such as employee onboarding.
There are many processes that pre-pandemic required an actual wet signature that shifted to e-signatures due to the need for physical distancing. The use of e-signatures saw a sharp rise during the stay-at-home period of the COVID-19 pandemic.